Elizabeth Bishop: Could It Be?

       On Monday, Ms. Serensky presented us with two images of Elizabeth Bishop. The first image, located towards the top of the page, was clearly of Bishop. The second image, located below, raised much controversy. Upon laying  eyes on it, I yelled out "That can not be her." At first glance, I saw the profile of an old man sitting in a chair with a cat. Ms. Serensky assured us that it was indeed Bishop, and clearly she was not making it up. Why would she put a picture of a random man holding a cat on the Elizabeth Bishop page? Still, despite this logical reasoning, I doubted the presence of Elizabeth Bishop in the photo.  I visited Google to once again view the controversial image. It appeared on multiple Elizabeth Bishop websites, and began to look like Bishop (and more importantly a woman) with each viewing. After putting so much time and energy into lamenting over the infamous Elizabeth Bishop picture, I had English on the mind...in particular pictures of authors. I suddenly remembered the troubling image of Jhumpa Lahiri located at the back of The Namesake, where she sits staring at the reader with her eyes popping out of her head. The more I though about it, the more I realized how often I look at the author's picture in the back of the novel, or on the back cover, and ask myself, 'What were they thinking?' After scouring the bookshelves for a few minutes, I came across a plethora of author pictures that caused me much confusion and concern. Here are a select few:

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

"I'm watching you" ... creepy.


Elie Wiesel, Night

My mom would never let me get photographed with my hair sticking up like that!


Fast Food Nation, Eric Scholsser

Eric, don't worry, be happy.

If I were an author, I would be especially particular about the picture in which I chose to put in the back of my novel. Especially these influential authors and their works. Works that millions upon millions of people read. Therefore, millions upon millions of people lay eyes on these pictures. I am not at all implying that these people are weird or ugly. I just do not quite understand their choices of visual representation. From Jhumpa Lahiri's bulging eyes, to Elie Weisel's tousled hair, the entertainment never ends. I have recently deduced that some of these authors find themselves to perfectly normal, contrary to what I think. Others probably look to make a statement with their off putting pictures. Or maybe, just maybe, they care more about what is in the book rather than the 2x4 picture of themselves that hides toward the back. Most people could really care less about the thumb- sized image of the author. Of course, I care. Maybe I should just stop caring about what the author looks like, and focus more about what the author looks to convey through his/her powerful work. Just a thought.